Yes

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingly power: proclaim the Word; be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient; convince, reprimand encourage through all patience and teaching (2 Tim. 4:1-2).

A friend of mine, who is a believer, made a comment to me last night about how lately the Lord has been putting her into some strange circumstances. She was feeling a bit frustrated because she didn’t understand why she was in those situations when she didn’t really feel like she knew what to do or how to fix them.

Her comments reminded me of one of my favorite Scripture passages - the account of the call of Levi in the Gospel of Luke. The evangelist writes of Levi’s response, “And leaving everything behind, he got up and followed Him” (Lk. 5:28). I have long been fascinated by the fact that Levi didn't ask a bunch of questions about where they were going or what they would be doing. He simply responded in the affirmative. I meditate often on this passage and take it as a kind of personal mantra in my faith walk. When the Lord calls me to do something, especially when it seems out of the ordinary, it is hard for me to respond so readily as Levi did. As a project manager, I like to get a sense of the risks involved when I take on a new project. I like to collect as much information as I possibly can before setting up a project plan for achieving the goal. But the spiritual life is not like that. God sometimes challenges us to “put out into deep water and lower [our] nets for a catch” (Lk. 5:4) without a lot of detail around where we’re headed. And the challenge often comes at an inconvenient time, involving people who are not at all interested in spiritual matters.

This is where our faith can really get challenged, especially for those of us who tend to be very precise and analytical, or in situations where we fear we might be thought to be losing our minds. I saw the truth of this back in the 1996 when a young woman I know from church was rendered clinically brain dead after suffering a chronic asthma attack. The doctors kept telling her family to pull the plug, insisting that there was no hope. I won’t tell you here how things turned out. If you come by my office, you’ll see a newspaper article up on my board and you can read the story there. I keep it as a reminder of the Lord’s promise to each of us, “Amen I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you” (Mt. 17:20).

God doesn’t need us, but He loves us so much that He allows us to share in His salvific work. Let’s pray for the grace to be up to the challenge and to answer His call with a wholehearted “Yes!”

Prayer Request:
For those struggling to discern God’s call in their lives.

Prayer:
O Lord, our God, we give you thanks for calling us out of darkness to walk in Your wonderful light. You promised that we would do the mighty works You do, if only we believe in You. We stand on that promise, Lord. Help our faith to grow, so that we might preach the Good News with boldness, give of ourselves more generously, and fight the good fight until that glorious day when we are united with You completely in heaven. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.